It’s rare that a major news outlet covers the charitable work of American churches. (Is that the fault of the news media, or the churches?) Bucking this trend, a recent New York Times Op-Ed by Elizabeth Bruenig, “Churches Step In Where Politicians Will Not,” highlights a...
The year 2020 has launched an armada of articles that bear the same rippling banner. “The coronavirus could be the crisis that finally propels X industry into the 21st Century.” This week’s flotilla led off with a New York Times piece by Stefanos Chen about...
They had become so focused on the aches and pains in the system that they had been thrown off course by the complaints. They had stopped supplying vision or had burned out fighting the resistance; they had ceased to be the strength in the system....
Our inboxes—perhaps like yours—have been flooded with election-related emails in the last month. There have been requests for money (and more requests, and more requests), pleas for volunteers, and updates on polls and strategy. As we headed into election week, however, there came a change. ...
It is inevitable for most church boards that, during times of uncertainty (like now) or contentious board discussions (potentially like now), people get to thinking, if only we knew more … or if only the people on the other side of the issue understood more...
What is the church for? Increasingly, this question is coming into focus as an essential question to ask – and answer – for congregations, their pastors, and their church boards. Most faith communities have long assumed they know what they exist for. Sadly, the year 2020...
Before writing our piece this week, we called a colleague who is a gifted pastor of a mid-sized healthy congregation. “So, what are you thinking about in the midst of this fall’s stewardship emphasis in your church?” The pastor’s succinct response: “Ugh.” Among pastors and church leaders,...
For some, it is the loss of salad bars. As the Wall Street Journal reported last week: A casualty of the pandemic, the days of the salad bar are gone for the foreseeable future. …[T]o devotees, the banishment of buffet bars signifies the closing of a cherished...
Once you reach your 60s (or so we hear . . .), the annual physical at the doctor’s office may include a memory test. Spell “world” backward. Sure. Subtract 7 from 100 until you get less than 50. Got it. What day of the week is it? Uh...